Why do I like exercising outside?

I have now been doing an outdoor bootcamp in St Albans for so many years I’ve lost count, but I started in my early forties and am now in my late fifties.  

Believe me, that is quite an achievement to have stuck with it for so long as before doing this I had never stuck with any form of exercise.  I’d actually done very little, although had had the occasional attempt to use gyms, but they just weren’t for me.

I was very unfit and overweight, and knew I needed to do something about it.  My work medical had put my fitness in the bottom left-hand corner of the graph, i.e. extremely unfit.

When I started, I couldn’t keep up with the others or do what they could do, but that shouldnt put anyone off, but I did what I could and found I was in such an encouraging environment with everyone just willing me to do my best, assuring me that it would get easier.  I’m not certain that is true, as the fitter you get, the more you are encouraged to keep doing your best, and so gradually you just find you are doing more and more without even realising it.  At my next work medical, they put me in the top right-hand corner of the graph (very fit), and I’d lost 2 ½ stone.  I think they were as surprised as I was.  I put part of the weight loss down to a summer helping my other half build a patio, but certainly without the bootcamp, I would never have been able to keep up all those days of cement mixing, shovelling and stone moving.  My best advice for weight loss is build a patio, but unless you are going to take it up as a career, then for sustained fitness and weight management, then outdoor bootcamp is the way to go.

There is competition for those that want that, but for me, I am only in competition with myself, and I am winning.  I love the social aspect and being outside in nature, and for some reason, even though I know I am working much harder than I ever would in a gym, it honestly doesn’t feel like it.  You will see me at bootcamp several times a week now whatever the weather from torrential rain, to snow to sweltering heat, and sometimes I come home covered in mud.  Some might find that odd, but I’d have to shower and wash my clothes after going to the gym, so I really don’t see the problem.

I now feel much more confident about my future and will forever be grateful for finding a form of exercise that I enjoy and have stuck with.  The younger me would never have envisaged this for my future.